


Sunglasses at Night

by BringTheGoodOlBugle



Category: Dungeons & Dragons - All Media Types, Original Work
Genre: Cheating, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-25
Updated: 2020-06-25
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:34:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24904654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BringTheGoodOlBugle/pseuds/BringTheGoodOlBugle
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Male Character





	1. Chapter 1

I hated the heat. The sun wasn’t too bad, but this stagnant humidity was killing me. The chain armour I was wearing certainly wasn’t helping either.

This was my first foray into Sunhold, the territory of House Verrona. My first impressions weren’t great, and my travelling companions, Prince Austyn, his maid Cilliah, and the advisor Wrungis, seemed to be growing tired of my complaining. In my defence, none of them were wearing armour. 

One of my newest squires, a recruit named Pannis called down from his driving seat of the carriage we were in.

In a slightly nervous voice, he called out, “Uh, Sir Roven, I think we’re at their gatehouse”

Putting on my shades with more flourish than was probably necessary, I opened the door of the carriage and hopped out onto the sun-baked road.

My heavy boots kicked up a bit of dust as I found myself face to face with the fishy meat-head himself, Gill.

Gill looked as big and as dumb as ever, but at least given the weather his lack of shirt made a bit more sense than the last time I had seen him.

We greeted each other coldy. I got the sense he wasn’t happy that I beat up his protege when they had last visited my home, but Gill wasn’t exactly a hard man to read.

I told Pannis to follow our escorts, and I got back in the carriage to wait to arrive at the castle.

My heart was beating just a bit faster now, because I knew that I was about to see the best girl in the whole Feywild, June, who was the princess of the Summer Court and was engaged to my court’s prince, Austyn, that I was seeing in secret.

Seeing might have been a bit of a stretch. We had shared a night a few months ago when she and her delegation had come to Cornucoochia for wedding business. Now my delegation was coming to the Sunhold for the same reason. I could only hope that June would want to see me again, and that I wasn’t just some passing fancy to her.

The ride to the castle was uneventful. I swear, nothing interesting ever happens on carriage rides like these.

We arrived at their castle. It was a beautiful building, carved out of polished sandstone and overlooking the sea. It was probably the second prettiest thing in the Sunhold, behind June, of course.

We were welcomed with a ceremony, but my head was preoccupied with other things, mainly the princess I did my best to not look at too long. My shades allowed me a sense of security for a glance or two, but I couldn’t risk giving away our secret, for both our sakes. 

I was a little disheartened to not get any glances in return from June. She was a smart lady, and wouldn’t do anything to risk giving away our secret either.

My spirits were raised a bit by Celosia, June’s maid, giving me a quick, subtle nod. After that, I stood just a bit straighter than I had before.

The eladrin of the summer kingdom were less inclined to lavish feasts than we autumn eladrin were, so while their welcoming feast wasn’t as decadent as ours was for them, it was still bountiful.

After a few courses of fruit and fresh seafood, their primary queen, Solana addressed the crowd.

In her gruff voice, she said, “Greetings to our guests. We’re pleased to be forming a relationship between our two houses. Tomorrow we will have a small tournament, with a dance to follow. Enjoy your evening”.

She sat down and the atmosphere from before returned. Most of the people were up from their seats and mingling around now. I saw Wrungis chatting with some important looking summer eladrin, and Cilliah and Austyn were chatting away by themselves. Neither of them were much of big party people. Before his engagement, Austyn would have been talking to some of the boys at the party, but given his engagement, he had been warned to knock that off. 

I couldn’t help but notice Gill. The blue buffoon was following around one of the servants carrying a food platter. 

Finally, I scanned the room to see if I could see June. It took a few moments, but she was mingling with some old, important looking members of her court.

Deciding to blend in and do what would be expected of me, I started to aimlessly chat with some pretty ladies. I used to love flirting with a bunch of ladies, but ever since my night with June, other ladies had just lost their lustre. 

My dancing was interrupted by a light touch on my shoulder. When I looked around, all I saw was Celosia walking away. When I looked down, I saw a scrap of parchment on the ground. Trying to be as inconspicuous as I could, I knelt down to pick up the scrap and I pocketed it.

Excusing myself to go relieve myself, I wandered off to a secluded hallway and unfolded the note. It was bigger than I expected it to be, seemingly folded by expert hands.

In flowing calligraphy, the note read, _Dear Roven, I hope this note finds you well. The last time we met was some of the most fun fun I’ve had in years, hopefully you feel the same._ I took a moment to breathe a sigh of relief that she did in fact still have feelings for me before continuing to read, _Tonight, an hour after midnight, follow the path I’ve drawn out for you. I’ll have a surprise for you._ The note was signed, _Affectionately, June_. Drawn below the text was a path through the castle, starting in what she labelled the guest wing, and ending where she had labelled with a few question marks.

I crumpled the note up in my hand and hid it in my pocket. A midnight surprise from June. My mind was racing a mile-a-minute, I had no idea what it could be, but I didn’t think I’d have any issues with whatever it was.

It was still a few hours until midnight, but I retired from the party, saying I wanted to be well rested just in case anything out of the ordinary happened the next day.

A servant showed me to my quarters for the night and wished me a good night. Changing into some light clothing that would be suitable if my last meeting with June would be any hint of what tonight had in store for me. Fidgeting with anticipation, I did my best to settle down and meditate until just after midnight.

  
  
  



	2. Chapter 2

I ended my trance and grabbed my shades before retrieving the note from the pocket of my discarded tunic. 

Unfolding the note again, I followed the directions June had made for me. I soon found myself delving deeper into the palace than I had expected. The longer I followed the directions, the more unused the castle around me seemed. By the end of the directions, where I found myself could barely be considered part of the castle anymore. 

I found myself in a roughly carved out cavern. At first I thought it was a dead end, but then I started to take a closer look around.

Drawn in the dusty sandstone beneath me was an ‘R’ written in elven script, along with a small arrow pointing to a seemingly normal part of the wall.

Inspecting the wall, it was actually a sheet hung over a tunnel, woven and dyed to mimic the coarse sandstone.

The tunnel was dark, but I wasn’t scared of anything, especially with what was on the other side.

I walked the tunnel for only a few minutes before I reached the end. Pushing past another sheet, I found myself on a small beach. The water was still, illuminated only by the moon.

June was already there, stretching out while ankle deep in the water. She was wearing a different outfit than what she had been wearing last time. During our previous rendezvous, she had been wearing her formal wear, but this time she was dressed more casually, in a loose tunic and trousers, just like me.

She didn’t seem to notice me at first, but she was expecting me, and I had been only standing there a moment before I must have made some noise that I wasn’t perceptive enough to notice. 

Without turning to face me, she addressed me, “Oh, good, you found your way down here. I’d have hated to miss you during your visit,” she turned to face me before continuing “and, I’d hate to have missed the chance to kick your ass again”.

She had a cocky smile on her face, just like I’d give any poor guy who was matched up against me. Gods this girl was incredible. 

What June didn’t know was that I had been training with my kingdom’s best unarmed fighters in hopes I’d get a rematch with her. 

As it turns out, a few more months of training didn’t give me the edge over a skilled monk with years of intense training. Go figure. 

This sparring session ended pretty much the same way as the previous one did. Only difference was that this time I was laying in the sand, which was a step up from the sparring grounds. 

This time, she didn’t stand over me to taunt me. Instead, I just heard her saunter off towards the water. I was slowly getting up when something inspired me to pick up my pace. 

I was hit in the face by what I quickly figured out to be her tunic. By the time I was standing up, I heard her splashing around in the water. 

She called out, “Get in here! I hear the water is great for nursing bruised egos”.

I hurried to the water, barely pausing to notice her trousers laying near the water.

I quickly tore off my shirt and trousers before wading into the water. Could I swim? No. Would I reveal that to her? Also no. 

I waded out until I was waist deep. The water was cool but not too cold. Anywhere big enough to swim back home would chill you to the bone. 

I was standing still while June swam in lazy circles around me, taking every opportunity to splash me. 

I decided to take a stand and lunge out to try and grab her. I should have known that this would be a fruitless effort. I ended up flailing around for a few seconds before June pulled me up. 

She was trying to stifle her laughter, and doing a bad job of it. In between fits of giggling she managed to say, “My goodness Roven, if you can’t swim why would you follow me in and try to tackle me”

Before I could reply, she leaned in and kissed me, preventing me from embarrassing myself any further. 

Taking me by the hand, she led me to knee deep waters where someone with my level of experience couldn’t accidentally drown himself.

We sat together and just looked at the moon together. After a few moments she leaned her head on my shoulder, and I pulled her in closer.

We were holding hands in silence before June broke it, “I know I shouldn’t be doing any of this, but I just hate the idea of being tied down and being told what to do,” I could hear the melancholy in her voice as she continued, “And the idea of being locked into a marriage without any freedom? Just to be a pawn in my moms’ politics? It makes me almost sick”.

I didn’t know how to react. I saw where she was coming from, a loveless, boring political marriage sounded awful, and I had no idea where I fit in. 

Choosing my words carefully as to not put her on the spot, I said with as much tenderness as I could, “And what can I do for you tonight?”

She pulled my shades off and looked me in the eye before speaking, “Tonight, I want you to,” she paused, seemingly thinking over her next words, “Help me feel free, even for just one night”.

As the words left her mouth, her hands went behind her back and untied her undergarments.

I quickly met her in a kiss, and over the next few hours I did everything I could to help her feel free.


End file.
